I first met Steven Dunn through my eating disorder advocacy. I was actively bulimic for over two decades and have been in recovery for just over 12 years. Steven had not long before lost his daughter Morgan to anorexia nervosa. We talked often about advocacy issues and supported each other in our work to raise awareness. However, I never spoke with him about how he dealt with tragic, heart-breaking loss as a father and lawyer. Here is his story. The legal profession demands excellence. It requires intelligence, guile, compassion, integrity, and a sense of duty and honor. Trial work particularly tests all aspects of the human condition. Those qualities, and the trials and tribulations we...
Continue reading...
Abraham Lincoln? William De Britaine? Roger L’Estrange? Italian Proverb? Benjamin Franklin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Evaluating complex legal issues requires expertise. Abraham Lincoln reportedly employed the following adage. Here are two versions: If you are your own lawyer you have a fool for a client. He who represents himself has a fool for a client. Would you please explore this topic? Quote Investigator: The earliest partial match known to QI appeared in the 1682 book “Humane Prudence, or, The Art by which a Man May Raise Himself and Fortune to Grandeur” by William De Britaine. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI: Before you act, it’s Prudence soberly...
Continue reading...
On April 19, 1989, everything changed for New York City teenagers Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise. That night, a young female jogger would be brutally beaten and raped in Central Park — and they would ultimately become wrongful suspects of the investigation. The "Central Park Five," as these boys became known, are the subject of Netflix's hit true crime-based miniseries, When They See Us . Created by esteemed director Ava Duvernay ( Selma , 13th ), the series aims to tell the story of the boys' wrongful incarcerations from their perspectives — the perspectives that were so rarely seen during the media storm that surrounded their...
Continue reading...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A lawyer convicted of swindling NBA star Charles Barkley and using the name of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to bolster an investment scam was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre also ordered Donald Watkins to pay about $14 million in restitution. Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 17+ years for Watkins and 6+ years for his son, Donald Watkins Jr. Both were convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges earlier this year. The two men stole more than $15 million from investors and a bank, prosecutors said. Bowdre said she took the elder man’s age, 70, into consideration in imposing a lighter sentence, but...
Continue reading...
Dean Strang and Jerry Buting think the courts have failed Brendan Dassey (Picture: Netflix) Making a Murderer lawyers Dean Strang and Jerry Buting have slammed the Wisconsin courts for ‘failing’ Brendan Dassey with his ever complicated appeal. Dassey, 29, has been in prison since he confessed to the murder of Teresa Halbach at the age of 17 to the police. It’s a confession that also secured the fate of Steven Avery, although both continue to protest their innocence, with Dassey’s lawyers claiming the confession was coerced from him. Since then, there have been numerous attempts to get him released, with limited success. Speaking to Digital Spy, Dean Strang slammed the Wisconsin prosecutors...
Continue reading...
Legal Rebels Podcast What’s your brand? Max Miller has some thoughts It's good to be seen as a "thought leader," but don't call yourself that in marketing materials, says lawyer, professor and small business owner Max Miller. “It should be evident,” Miller told the ABA Journal’s Stephanie Francis Ward in this episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast. “You shouldn’t have to put it in your LinkedIn profile.” Miller is a former in-house lawyer and brand team member and logistics group manager with H.J. Heinz Co, who also served as chief administrative officer and general counsel with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. When he was tapped as an inaugural...
Continue reading...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge on Wednesday ordered the release of documents relating to hush-money payments by Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to two women who said they had sexual encounters with the president and disclosed that federal prosecutors had ended their investigation of the matter. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan ordered that the documents, used by prosecutors to obtain a search warrant for Cohen's home and office last year, must be unsealed by 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) on Thursday, declaring the issue of "national importance." Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in 2018 to directing payments of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels and $150,000 to Playboy...
Continue reading...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A visibly irritated federal judge on Tuesday banned President Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone from posting on social media, describing him as behaving like a schoolchild unable to follow simple orders, after prosecutors accused him of violating a gag order by repeatedly discussing his case on Instagram. “Your lawyer had to twist the facts, twist the plain meaning of the order and twist himself into a pretzel” to argue that Stone’s social media posts did not violate her order, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Stone at a hearing. Jackson said she would not jail Stone for violating the order, saying a contempt hearing,...
Continue reading...
An Act respecting the Criminal Law Short Title Marginal note: Short title Interpretation Marginal note: Definitions (b) an Act of the legislature of the former Province of Canada, (c) an Act of the legislature of a province, and (d) an Act or ordinance of the legislature of a province, territory or place in force at the time that province, territory or place became a province of Canada; ( loi ) associated personnel means persons who are (a) assigned by a government or an intergovernmental organization with the agreement of the competent organ of the United Nations, (b) engaged by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, by a specialized agency of the United Nations or by...
Continue reading...
Judge George Hazel on Wednesday said that while he is “inclined to ultimately permit the withdrawal, under the unique circumstances of this request, more specific assurances will first need to be provided.” Hazel said that he “cannot fathom how it would be possible, at this juncture, for a wholesale change in Defendants’ representation not to have some impact on the orderly resolution of these proceedings unless Defendants provide assurance of an orderly transition between the withdrawing attorneys and new counsel.” “This requires more than just the effort of the new DOJ team, but the involvement and availability of the withdrawing attorneys,” he...
Continue reading...
